User blog:Raylan13/The Mayhem Begins
On Saturday, June 6th, we were treated to first-hand access to The Mayhem Begins, a livestream event hosted by YouTube featuring epic battles and announcements of yet-to-be-released content (which Hawki and Monsieur Xanadu have already dutifully been updating here). Unlike the folks hosting the event, we'll actually start with the new content! Mayhem.jpg Mayhem1.jpg Mayhem2.jpg Eternal Conflict :Releases - June 30th; PTR - June 23rd Eternal Conflict is the name of the upcoming batch of content focused solely on the Diablo universe. This is surely a sigh of relief for those that may have wondered if Blizzard was going to keep focusing on Warcraft material. There's going to be a host of new skins - oh, and a new battleground and at least one new hero, The Butcher. Battlefield of Eternity The new battleground is titled Battlefield of Eternity (one we already had artwork for) and already sets itself apart from appearance alone. It features an all too familiar battle between the High Heavens and Burning Hells, something the Diablo fans amongst us will surely appreciate. Another thing that sets this battleground apart is the action that periodically takes place in the center, starting at about 1:45. Two immortals will appear (and they'll be about level 3) - one good and the other evil - and start battling it out. They'll spawn across from each other within any two of the four central circles. Once one has been reduced significantly in health (50% or so) it will clash with the opposing immortal in the center, then randomly respawn at one of the other empty circles, with its counterpart appearing opposite. From there they will complete their battle. If heroes are attacking, they have an AoE ability and Stun+Knockback. Heroes are highly encouraged to assist their immortal for two reason: 1) if their immortal wins, it serves as an enormous minion that will push down the strongest enemy lane and 2) the lower the amount of damage the immortal takes, the higher its shield when it does begin its push. The other reveal of the map are the Fallen Shaman, a new type of mercenary that comes with two hounds. These hounds will be resurrected so long as the Shaman is alive, so taking out the Shaman is the priority. BattlefieldofEternity.jpg BattlefieldofEternityCenter.jpg The Butcher :"Fresh meat!" Though The Butcher was seen as early as Diablo, he is also an Act boss in Diablo III. We've already got his page built out with all his abilities, so be sure to wander that-away for a good look. He's a Melee Assassin. This guy is huge, mean, and can take on some tough mercenary camps by his lonesome thanks to his resilience and ability to heal (thanks to Butcher's Brand). What will surely annoy heroes the most is his "Lamb to the Slaughter" ability - from what we could see with The Butcher in battle, this apparently will "hitch" all nearby enemies to it, including mercenaries, preventing them from leaving the area for four seconds. Obviously this works magnificently with Area of Effect abilities to quickly take out foes. In fact, we've been told that the only hero that will be able to break this is Johanna. Anyone else using an escape ability will be brought right back where they were. Matches I've never been a fan of shoutcasting, but there's something about seeing it in person that completely changes the dynamic. It doesn't hurt that Blizzard managed to showcase two epic matches that highlight two potential methods of war. ;Cloud9 vs. UC Berkeley If you don't know, Cloud9 is a team of professional gamers that managed to obliterate their competition in the world finals. They aren't to be taken lightly by any stretch. In our other corner we had UC Berkeley, the winners of the Heroes of the Dorm competition that recently took place. One might think that, given the fact the latter actually have to go to school, the pro gamers would effectively steamroll them. Well, not quite. This is what we might call a war of patience. Right from the start it was apparent that UCB was just as skilled as Cloud9, which says a lot. Once all the dust settled near the end, they were almost dead even; in fact, UCB made the push to Cloud9's core first. Yet Cloud9 was able to rally, push back, and ultimately win the match. ;Low Expectations If the previous match was one of patience, this was one of finesse. The team of Murky, Brightwing, Abathur, Jaina, Li Li, and Johanna was an interesting choice. Yet when you consider all that these particular heroes bring to the table and the skill with which Low Expectations utilized them, it was nothing short of phenomenal. The battleground was Dragon Shire, and claiming the two points of interest went back and forth. Abathur hunkered down near Murky's egg, surrounded by defenses, while Murky - paired typically with either Brightwing or Uther - wreaked havoc at the lower point. This would occasionally move to the upper point when needed. Johanna - played by none other than Michelle Morrow - really shone. Situated mainly in the center of the map at the shrine, her high survivability made it all but impossible for the opposing heroes to gain control of the Dragon Knight even when they did claim the other two points. This situation exactly highlighted Johanna's usefulness: she doesn't pump out a huge amount of damage, but with her ability to become invulnerable for a short amount of time, she can disrupt and stall the opposition like none other, and Michelle used her to the fullest extent. In fact, she became the Knight on a handful of occasions, ultimately delivering the killing blow that ended the game. But let's not forget Abathur who, if memory serves correctly, only died once the entire game. Once he used , he went to town on the upper lane. The opposition had to focus primarily on the two points of interest and the shrine, so ultimately Abathur essentially had free reign to cause as much destruction as possible and ended up pushing all the way to the core. Parting notes It's important to keep in mind what we heard at The Mayhem Begins as it relates to other Blizzard IPs: namely that they're starting to focus on bringing the others in to feature. Diablo is the first, so we would expect StarCraft-inspired battlegrounds and more heroes to surface as well as - a guess here - Overwatch and others. Category:Blog posts Category:News